An escalator with a base support, at which a base facing is arranged, has become known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,785,286. The base facing is made fast at one end to a bracket of the base support and is held at the other end by a clamping strip, to which an obliquely arranged balustrade panel is also fixed. Illuminating equipment arranged rearwardly in the base and supplied by the support structure of the escalator provides illumination of the step region. A reflector conducts the light of a tubular light source through a transparent base facing into the walk region of the step belt.
A disadvantage of the known equipment lies in that due to the support construction for the base facing and for the obliquely arranged balustrade panel no space for the illuminating equipment is present in the base facing region. The light from the light source must be conducted forwardly into the walk region by means of an expensive reflector. Moreover, the illuminating equipment is poorly accessible for maintenance operations.
It is accordingly the purpose of the present invention to provide a balustrade structure having illumination equipment which avoids the disadvantages of known equipment and locates the illuminating equipment as close as possible to the step belt or to the pallet belt.